Willesden screwdriver-wielding kidnapper jailed

A TEENAGE father will miss the birth of his second child after being jailed for four years for kidnap.

Career criminal Martin Kinsella, from Kilburn, was sentenced at Harrow Crown Court for an offence in which he used a screwdriver to force an associate to drive him and another man around in his car.

Kinsella, of Carlton Vale, was found guilty at an earlier hearing of kidnapping Mohammed Sheikh, of Willesden.

The ‘remorseless’ 19-year-old, who has a two-year-old daughter with an estranged partner and whose current girlfriend is five months’ pregnant, was sent to prison on Thursday last week.

The sentence followed his conviction by a jury on March 21 for kidnapping 35-year-old Mr Sheikh last July.

The court was told the kidnapping happened after Kinsella had called at Mr Sheikh’s home in Church Road, Willesden.

Judge Alan Greenwood said: “You went to Mohammed Sheikh’s flat with your friend Lee and threatened to beat him up if he did not drive you.

“He remained unwilling and you went to the kitchen and returned with a screwdriver, pulled Mr Sheikh towards yourself and held the screwdriver to his stomach and said ‘If you don’t come with us I’m going to stab you’.

“The victim says that when you said that, he was scared and he didn’t want to go with you, but he was forced and he was scared for his life. He drove them to Watford and called the police twice en route.”

Beth Crocker, defending, said: “It’s a case of the victim’s will being overborne rather than him being carried out of the door. It’s threat and coercion, but it’s not a physical use of violence.”

Mr Sheikh had willingly driven Kinsella to a probation appointment the day before.

Judge Greenwood described Kinsella’s list of previous convictions as ‘shocking and depressing’. It was full of ‘unattractive violence’ that included hitting a man over the head with a spanner during a robbery and punching a woman in the face, leaving her with cuts and swelling.

In 2011, Kinsella pushed a bicycle into the path of a moped in order to cause the rider to fall off and suffer injuries.

The judge added: “This is not the kind of kidnap where a ransom is demanded or perhaps a firearm is used.

“However, he has a dreadful criminal record, there was no sign of remorse and the victim was clearly terrified.”

The four-year jail sentence, less the days Kinsella spent on a daytime curfew, prompted an outburst from the public gallery by a member of the defendant’s family, said by Ms Crocker to be a cousin, who swore at the judge and protested Kinsella’s innocence.

Detective Constable Karen Beck, from Brent CID, said after the hearing: “Thanks to the bravery of the victim, we have been able to put a very unpleasant individual into prison.

“Kinsella represents all that is wrong with today’s society and Brent police will continue to pursue and prosecute members of the criminal fraternity.”